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Flamethrower
Non-documented: Fear resist | Clip Size=15 | Firing Period=6.4s | Reloading Period=*2.5s (base) *1.9s (Cap's ability) | Melee Damage=10/20 (crit) | Price=Obtained by purchasing the SWAT bundle for 925 money | Bus Level=Any |Ability = Gains +3 speed.}}Flamethrower is a TMF pyromaniac specializing in all things fire. He is armed with a man-portable flamethrower and dressed in a black full-body, bulletproof armor suit, a black gas mask with red lenses, and a black combat helmet. He is a shotgunner, meaning he will launch a cone of damage upon firing and excels at dealing with weak hordes and single tanky enemies up close. Flamethrower attacks, as his name would suggest, by shooting a steady stream of fire, setting enemies without the proper resistance on fire, dealing extra damage to them. Each flame particle can hit up to once, twice, or three times. The order is random, but in the end, it grants Flamethrower a respectable DPS with enough upgrades to his damage, not to mention his fire debuff damage, which is also upgraded as well. While not being a traditional shotgunner unit, his attacks are still capable of hitting multiple enemies since the fire particles are capable of passing through them, only disappearing once it travels its full range. He has a slow "reload" and a short attack range. As a TMF unit, Flamethrower has both bullet and poison resistance but isn't a very suitable unit for missions containing marauders (due to his severely low health) or Epidemiologist and Slob (enemies who are fireproof). However, his fear resistance is particularly strong, making it difficult for almost any amount of enemies to inflict the fear debuff. When killed, he won't turn into a zombie. Unlike his fellow TMF squadmates though, Flamethrower is the only one that doesn't simply lie down and die. Due to his namesake weapon of choice, he will explode and leave behind a fire pool on death. Admittedly, Flamethrower is a somewhat niche unit since his weapon deals pure fire damage, and as such, he's usually effective only on missions that generally lack fire-resistant enemies. Missions mostly containing enemies that possess full fire resistance make Flamethrower a near-useless dead weight on the player's battle deck. His slow speed is also a serious problem. Sometimes he'll reach the location of a fight as it's already coming to an end. When switching targets above or below him, he may find himself directly facing his enemy, a dangerous position to be in for a ranged unit, simply due to how slow he moves. Because of this, he works well alongside Cap, as his inspiration perk helps to somewhat negate his slow movement speed issue. Another one of Flamethrower's major drawbacks is his abysmal health, one of the lowest in the entire game and the actual lowest among all ranged units. Due to this, he requires constant support in order not to get easily killed. This can be seen in missions where Insectoid appears. Once Insectoid pounces on Flamethrower, he can be killed rather quickly before being able to properly retaliate. In these situations, other ranged units can help support Flamethrower from a distance, potentially saving him from a quick death. It's highly recommended to bring Medkit along in order to help keep Flamethrower alive as he is generally very vulnerable. All these drawbacks mainly prove to show Flamethrower's lack of versatility, as in reality, he proves to be very powerful in certain other situations. Although his initial damage appears underwhelmingly low, upgrades to his damage prove to make him one of the strongest units to singlehandedly kill strong, slow, and high health enemies without full fire resistance with ease. Missions with rainy weather will not affect Flamethrower's ability to attack but enemies without full immunity against fire do not take additional damage from the fire debuff. Missions hit with a sandstorm will decrease Flamethrower's weapon range by half. Additionally, Flamethrower can actually target the barricade in those missions, similarly to how Willy does in any given mission due to having a short-ranged weapon. Unlike Willy, however, Flamethrower will always attempt to burn (attack) the barricade first with his weapon before finally resorting to his melee attack. It isn't recommended bringing Flamethrower along for those types of missions due to his abysmal speed slowing down even worse and proper melee units being able to destroy the barricade far more adequately. Upon reaching level 13, Flamethrower's special ability can be unlocked, granting him 3 additional points of movement speed. This bonus makes Flamethrower move a bit quicker at a max base movement speed of 8. Although the bonus isn't much, improving Flamethrower's god-awful speed by any amount should never be dismissed as it will make him, at the very least, ever so slightly more viable as far as movement is concerned. Despite this, it doesn’t save him from having miserable health and being a situational unit. In League, Flamethrower proves to be a lot of enemy melee units' worst nightmare, particularly Turbo, the only unit that possesses full bullet resistance. His death explosion also usually guarantees whoever does manage to kill him in melee range get taken down with him. However, his slow speed and very low health proves to be his biggest disadvantage and makes him a rather easy target when dealing with enemy ranged units despite his bullet resistance. His short weapon range can also prove to be a detriment as he may sometimes fire his weapon just shy of hitting his opponent, giving enemy ranged units fortunate enough to encounter this situation all the time needed to slowly shoot Flamethrower down, assuming everyone else on his team has been eliminated. Rarely, should two Flamethrowers encounter each other, they may find themselves in a permanent stalemate, firing at each other just outside of one another's reach until the player decides to quit the match and heavily reconsider using another unit. Given Flamethrower's high courage cost, which could hinder team composition, that may not be a bad option. Pros * Moderate preparation time. * Bullet resistance. * Poison resistance. * Fear resistance. * Explodes on death (75 damage). Does not turn into a zombie. * Sets the enemies on fire. * Can destroy corpses on the floor. Cons * Only available in a unit pack for a large amount of money. * High courage cost. * Lowest ranged base health. * Very slow (slow after unlocking special ability). * Weak against fire-resistant units. * Can damage friendly units. * Less effective on missions affected by rainy weather. * Less effective on missions affected by a sandstorm. Trivia * Flamethrower is one of the four members of the Toxic Lab Military Forces, the others being Cap, Soldier, and Swat. * According to Flamethrower's deleted backstory: ** His name is Murdock, which is a reference to character H. M. "Howling Mad" Murdock from the action-adventure TV series "The A-Team." ** Flamethrower is a part of the A-Team along with Cap and Soldier. ** Both Flamethrower and Soldier hate each other, according to Soldier's backstory. * Like the rest of the TMF Squad members, Flamethrower was once available for purchase with coins. ** Flamethrower's requirement was level 10 and his price was 7,500 coins. ** In Quarantine his price was 9,000 coins. * In Dead Ahead: Quarantine, Flamethrower was the only TMF unit in the game and used to cost 12,500 coins. * Both Flamethrower and Specops are the only units to be negatively affected by a sandstorm other than its unit movement speed decrease. ** This was likely intentional as, in real life, the flames shot from a flamethrower can be heavily affected by strong enough winds, hindering its usage by pushing the flame's away from its intended trajectory, reducing its range, or in a worst-case scenario, blow the flames back onto the weapon's operator. Category:Units Category:Shotgunner Category:Exclusive